Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday the Islamic Republic would “slap” the United States by defeating new American sanctions targeting the nation.
In a speech in Tehran to thousands of members of the Basij, an all-volunteer force under Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Khamenei asserted that the country’s economy was strong enough to withstand the punitive measures.
Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, attended the speech with the head of the Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari.
Trump placed a first round of sanctions on Iran in August after pulling out in May from the 2015 international deal aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, to the dismay of his European allies. A second, more sweeping, set of sanctions is set to be reimposed in early November.
Trump argues that the 2015 Iran deal negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama gave Tehran money to support extremist groups and build nuclear-capable missiles.
